John Coulter writes us:

“Hi Lilla,
I did an illustration for the Las Vegas Sun for an article about balancing the state’s budget. Below is the final, the layout, some closeups and the original sketch.

The symbol on the sleeve comes from the Nevada State Flag. I found a flat color, vector version of it, and spiced it up with some textures, and changed the fonts as well. The phrase “Battle Born” on the state flag reflects the state’s entry on the Union side during the Civil War in 1864.

Thanks,
John”

Monday: Sarajo’s sketchbook

Rebecca writes us:

“Hi Lilla; I have just finished a piece for the LA Times Home section which I wanted to share. It was a rush job- from start to finish in a few days. In fact i had only a few hours to get sketches to the art director. I have attached the sketches and then the final. The story was about grandparents raising their granddaughter. I wanted to use the symbol of the family tree.”

Friday: New Images by Hsinping Pan

Trina Dalziel writes:

“Hi Lilla

I thought you might like to see how my Collection of repeat patterns named Inshriach started. Last May I went home to Scotland to visit my parents. On my Mum’s birthday we went to Inshriach plant nursery which is in a wood at the foot of the Cairngorm Mountains in the Highlands. They have a little café that sells amazing cakes made by the owner’s Norwegian wife and where you can sit and watch squirrels and birds in the trees outside. I wandered around and took loads of photos of the plants. Back in London I used my photos as reference for drawings which then became the repeats.”

We will be showing Trina’s patterns and other artists’ work at Printsource NY January 11-January 13. Come visit us!

Friday: We’re headed off to Printsource NYC.

Linda writes:

“Hi Lilla, I wanted to share a few pics of what i’ve been working on. These are very much in progress so i decided to just take a pic of my computer screen rather than send them all individually!”

Monday: Jenn Ski featured in Ty Pennington’s At Home magazine

John Coulter writes,

“Dear Lilla,

This is my submission for the blog Terrible Yellow Eyes. The TYE blog features a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. My illustration is also an homage to the vintage chocolate poster by French artist Hervé Moran. I’ve also included some close-ups of the texture and a preliminary sketch.

Friday: New exciting work by Marco Marella

The amazing author of “Eat, Pray, Love” speaks on the great site, TED. Here’s what she says:
I am a writer. Writing books is my profession but it’s more than that, of course. It is also my great lifelong love and fascination. And I don’t expect that that’s ever going to change. But, that said, something kind of peculiar has happened recently in my life and in my career, which has caused me to have to recalibrate my whole relationship with this work.And the peculiar thing is that I recently wrote this book, this memoir called “Eat, Pray, Love” which, decidedly unlike any of my previous books, went out in the world for some reason, and became this big, mega-sensation, international bestseller thing.The result of which is that everywhere I go now,people treat me like I’m doomed. Seriously — doomed, doomed! Like, they come up to me now, all worried, and they say, “Aren’t you afraid — aren’t you afraid you’re never going to be able to top that?Aren’t you afraid you’re going to keep writing for your whole life and you’re never again going to create a book that anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?”

Watch the video here.

I love the mysticism. I totally dig her vibe.

Friday: Lisa Congdon’s new promo card

Sketches for cards by Suzy Ultman.

Tomorrow: Charming collage by Lisa DeJohn

Here’s what the lovely Suzy has to say:

Hi Lilla,

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “worlds within our worlds”: all of the little connections that make our living world possible. It could come from the fact that I spend a lot of time with my boys at Boston’s Science Museum & the Natural History Museum. It also stems from my passion for the environment.

I started drawing bugs and snails. I replaced the snail’s home (shell) with our new house (#9) and then started drawing more snails with other Newburyport houses. I’ve attached those sketches. I’ve also attached a sketch for Madison Park. It is a tree with an apple family and a snail coming to visit.

I’d like to pursue the natural-world+human-world connections.

I also think these characters would live well in a paper diorama kit or “punchout and play” kit (fun DYI project). There could be houses, trees, critters all living in their own special world. Of course, there would have to be a “green” message. Let me know what you think. xo suzy

Tomorrow: Trina’s latest editorial piece for Spa Magazine. Think about the glowy-est pinks you can, and tomorrow you will see them in Trina’s piece.

Today I’m going to show you some mosaic raw materials. These are beach glass, beach pottery, beach stones, and my latest passion, beach plastic. This is a nice summer project.
Tomorrow I’m going to show you how to use these to create a mosaic. I’ll show you a birdhouse and an odd sign I made.
I just want to say that right now I’m listening to the soundtrack to Hair and I’m so loving it. Give it a shot when you get a chance. I got good times man, I got my hair, I got my brains, I got my mouth…I got freedom, brother…